GET THE APP
Support
Saturday, April 27, 2024
January 19, 2024
Jack Montgomery
Analysis
World

WEF Round-Up: Censorship, AI, & Fear of Trump Dominate Davos.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in Davos, Switzerland, has a slightly different focus than usual this year, with climate change and net zero taking a back seat to “misinformation” and war, as people prepare to head to the polls in a vast number of countries and conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East wear on.

CENSORSHIP. 

WEF organizer Klaus Schwab, whose father managed a factory for Nazi Germany, listed “misinformation and disinformation” as the world’s number one threat over the next two years.

Speaking in Davos, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to concur, warning misinformation makes it harder for elites to manage issues including “[c]hanges in our climate and our geopolitical climate, shifts in our demography and in our technology.”

She stressed measures the European Union has taken to mitigate this supposed issue, including the Digital Services Act, which “define[s] the responsibility of large internet platforms on the content they promote and propagate.” This has already been used to launch legal action against Elon Musk for not censoring X (formerly Twitter) enough for the EU’s liking.

European Commission Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, speaking alongside journalists from The New York Times and Washington Post, said it was essential to create “a system where people will get the facts right.”

Both tied the issue of misinformation to Russia, with von der Leyen also arguing it was imperative to continue arming and funding Ukraine.

AI.

Another issue shifting focus from climate change this year is Artificial Intelligence (AI). IBM chief executive Arvind Krishna told Davos attendees that countries that quickly embrace AI “are going to be advantaged forever,” while those who hesitate will “find that you may not have a job.”

CLASSIC FARE.

However, the mainstays of previous WEF summits were not entirely absent. Tedros Ghebreyesus, head of the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO), attended Davos to stress the threat of an inevitable future pandemic dubbed “Disease X.”

The former Ethiopian prime minister said it is “a matter of when, not if” the disease strikes, urging world leaders to sign up to the global pandemic treaty the WHO is preparing.

Some fear the treaty, which has been compared to the Paris Accords, could erode national sovereignty, given its promoters’ emphasis on the need for “global governance” during pandemics.

Climate change has also been a steady if less headline-grabbing presence at the 2024 summit, with von der Leyen emphasizing the European Green Deal and the WEF publishing a report claiming climate change could kill 14.5 million people by 2050.

The WEF has also continued to push mass migration — which it claims will be exacerbated by climate change — insisting it has been “a major driver of development and prosperity” for “centuries.”

AGAINST THE GRAIN. 

Not everyone at Davos is on the same page. In 2020, then-President Donald Trump attended the WEF summit to tell the elite class that “only when governments put their own citizens first” on issues such as immigration “will people be fully invested in their national futures.”

This year, Argentina’s President Javier Milei played a similarly disruptive role, warning “the main leaders of the Western world have abandoned the model of freedom” and trashing socialism and “social justice.”

Trump appears to have appreciated Milei’s intervention, writing on Truth Social that “he is MAGA (MAKE ARGENTINA GREAT AGAIN!)”

HOME TRUTHS.

Trump has come up frequently at the WEF summit, where the Joe Biden regime has been represented chiefly by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Many European leaders fear his return, with European Central Bank (ECB) chief Christine Lagarde warning his potential reelection in November is “clearly a threat” to the EU.

Some guest, however, urged attendees to take a more measured view of a second Trump administration. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, a Democrat, said the 45th President turned out to be “kind of right” on several key issues, including NATO, immigration, tax reforms, and China.

Dimon also cautioned U.S. and EU elites against demonizing the MAGA movement, as Joe Biden has, predicting “negative talk about MAGA is going to hurt Biden’s reelection campaign.”

BUSINESS OR PLEASURE? 

Politics is not the sole focus of WEF summit attendees. High-end prostitution services report they are fully booked, not just in Davos but across eastern Switzerland.

“All local service providers are completely booked during the WEF week,” said B. Konrad, who runs the ‘Titt4Tat’ escort matching services.